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Jan. 5 1926. 1,568,123

' J. M. ALLEN METHOD AND MEANS OF KNITTING FULL FASHIQNED I HOSIERY ON A CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 10, 1924 s Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 5 1926.

J. M. ALLEN METHOD AND MEANS OF KNITTING FULL FASHIONED HOSIERY ON A CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 10, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet Inventor.

Jan. 5,1926. 1,568,123

J. M. ALLEN METHOD AND MEANS OF KNITTING FULL FASHIONED HOSIERY ON A CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 10. 1924. 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 In Venton Patented Jan. 5, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN M. ALLEN, OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA.

METHOD AND MEANS OI KNITTING FULL-FASHIONED HOSIERY ON A CIRCULAR- KNI'ITING MACHINE.

Application filed July 10, 1924. Serial No. 725,249.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN M. ALLEN, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of the city of Toronto, county of York, Province of Ontario, in the Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods and Means of Knitting Full-Fashioned Hosiery on a Circular-Knitting Machine, as described in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

The principal objects of the invention are, to accomplish the manufacture of a full fashioned hose upon a circular knitting machine, thereby greatly reducing the cost of manufacture and enabling the production of a high class article at the minimum cost.

The principal feature of the invention consists in the novel method of manipulating the needles in a circular knitting machine, whereby almost the entire circle of needles may be operated in a reciprocating action of the needle cylinder, thereby enabling the building up of the diameter of the stocking from the narrowest portion of the ankle in the tapering of the leg portion to the larger calf and upper leg portion and in the arrangement of the top centre cam between the two stitch cams whereby said top centre cam is removed from the path of the needles in order to allow the needles in operation to overlap the operating cams and thereby reduce the gap between the ends of the operating needles in a reciprocating action to the minimum.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view showing the outline of a needle cylinder and illustrating the means for withdrawing the centre cam from its operative posi tion.

Figure 2 is an elevational diagram of the knitting cams showing the path of the needles in the stitching operations when the cylinder is rotating to the right.

Figure 3 is a diagram similar to Figure 2 showing the path of the needles when the cylinder is rotating to the left.

Figure 4: is a similar diagram showing the path of the needles in the overlap which is effected by the withdrawal of the centre cam out of the path of movement o the need e J Figure 5 is an enlarged side elevational view of the means for moving the centre cam.

Figure 6 is a diagram view illustrating the method of knitting the different shapes of the different parts of the stocking.

Figure 7 is a perspective detail of the portion of the needle cylinder and the picker for moving the needles into action.

In the manufacture of hosiery it is highly desirable to form the garment to the shape of the limb and I have described a method ofunak ing hosiery on circular knitting machines in my co-pending application, Serial Number 682,206 filed December 22nd, 1923, to meet this requirement and the present means and method are devised to construct a stocking according to that described in said previous application.

According to the method described in the prior application, the band 1 is first knitted with the full complement of needles. This band is used only for supporting the various stitches operated from time to time as described in the said application and the method describes the building of the stocking as commencing with the use of the minimum number of needles, the rest being moved out of operation.

I11 practice it is found that five needles are the lowest number which can be successfully used. The knitting commences with the five needles in operation on an ordinary type of circular machine and an ordinary type of picker is used to gradually bring more needles into operation to form the V-shaped heel portion 2 until the maximum width of the heel portion for the size of stocking being made is attained The fabric is then converged by the picking of needles out of operation and again increased to form the heel gore 3.

The bottom 4 of the foot of the stocking is then made by the reciprocating action and the toe gore 5 and upper portion of the foot follow in regular sequence.

The width of the fabric so far is such as to be handled in an ordinary manner by reciprocating the needle cylinder but afterthe widened portion 7 forming the back of the ankle to meet the heel has been completed he to k g is kni t d with a gradual increase in width in the fabric. This increase in width can only be maintained up to a certain point in the ordinary practice which is limited by the width of the cams and it has been necessary to retain a gap in the needles in operation to allow for the reciprocation of the needles between the cams.

According to the present invention the number of needles maintained in operation may be extended to within fourteen needles of the full complement by reason of providing a removable top centre cam so that the tail end of the needles in operation may pass the cams and work back and forth across them.

The cam construction illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3 is a very common arrangement. The side cams 8 and 9 are formed with the upward inclines leading from the centre cam 10 and the stitch cams 11 and 12 are placed between the side and centre cams, to lift the needles in the usual manner on the first part of the movement of the cylinder. The upper centre cam 13 engages the raised needles and directs them downwardly so that they are brought into alignment with the sloping stitch cams which engage and move the needles down in the formation of, the stitch and they are then returned. by the upwardly sloping surface of the side cams.

All this construction is quite common and the knitting with such an arrangement of cams is such that reciprocal knitting may be carried out within certain limits regulated by the width of the space occupied by the cam structures.

The present invention centers upon the fact of removing the upper centre cam at certain periods in order that the needles may swing past the cams in their reciprocating action. By making the uppercentre cam 13 so that it may be moved out of the path of the needles at certain periods, the complement of needles placed in operation in a reciprocating movement of the cylinder may be added to until nearly the full complement are in operation, the limitation being only affected by the space between the knitting cams and the width of the upper centre cam.

As illustrated in Figure 4; when the centre cam is drawn out of the path of the needles the said needles in passing over one of the knitting cams, instead of being directed downwardly to knit, will pass over the other cam in a straight line. By thus moving the centre cam out of action when the gap between the needles is reduced to the minimum the tail end of the knitting row of needles will not have passed the knitting cam before the opposite end of the row will come into contact with the centre cam if it remains fixed but if it is drawn out of the way, the needles may pass and not be diverted under the knitting cam and will simply ride freely over the top of the knitting cam and will then pass back and as soon as the end of the complement pass back, the cam is replaced and diverts the other end of the complement of needles into operation with the other knitting cam.

By this method of operating a circular knitting machine the entire complement of needles in the circle exclusive of fourteen needles may be put into operation by a reciprocating motion. The consequence is that in the building up of a full fashioned stocking the complement of needles required for the fashioning of the minimum diameter of the ankle portion will be added to by the operation of pickers gradually increasing the diameter in accordance with the shape of the leg and this shape may continue until almost the complete maximum diameter of the full circle of needles is attained, the final result being that a stocking is formed as illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 6 with a varied width presenting selvedge edges which may be readily secured in a suitable seam.

The movable centre cam is here shown operated by a slide member 14 operating the block 15 and connected to an arm 16 pivotally mounted on the machine f'ame, said arm being rocked on its pivot by a cam 17.

The mechanism for operating the cam is not shown as the specific method of operat ing is not material to this invention, nor in fact is the manner of moving the said cam out of operation an essential point. The cam may be shifted in other ways out of operating contact with the needles at certain periods and it is in the method of handling the needles rather than in the specific apparatus that the true invention is constituted.

lVhat I claim as my invention is 1. A method of knitting full fashioned hosiery on a circular knitting machine, consisting in knitting the fabric upon a circular knitting machine with a reciprocating action of the needle cylinder to form the foot, the ankle and the leg portion in a fashioned shape utilizing practically the entire circle of needles by intermittently withdrawing the top centre am of the knitting machine out of the path of the needles.

2. In means for knitting full fashioned hosiery a circular knittin machine having a pair of stitch cams spaced apart adapted to co-operate with the needles in their reciprocating movement, and a top centre cam adapted to direct the needles into engagement with the stitch cams, the latter cam being moveable into and out of the path of movement of the needles at each reciprocation of the cylinder to allow the needles at each end of the row to alternately pass in a withdrawn out of the path of the needles straight line over the stitch cams. moving over the stitch cams, and means for 3. Means for knitting full fashioned intermittently moving said top centre cam 10 hosiery, comprising in a circular knitting into and out of the path of said needles at 5 machine the combination With the spaced the end of each reciprocal movement of the stitch cams, of a top centre cam interposed cylinder. between said stitch cams and adapted to be JOHN M. ALLEN. 

